RF-ID systems are increasingly being used for more and a wider range of applications. In a typical RF-ID system, an interrogator transmits an interrogation signal, to a transponder, within read range of the interrogator, and the transponder responds by transmitting it's identification number either by backscattering the interrogation signal, in a full duplex mode, or by the transponder actually transmitting it's identification signal after being powered up by the interrogation signal in a half duplex mode. RF-ID technology has found a niche in the security market. Transponders are easily attached to security badges, toll tags, or gate passes to allow/prohibit access or even provide automatic billing services, i.e. toll roads and parking garages, and readers are as readily constructed into toll booths, and doorways. On an even smaller scale, RF-ID systems can provide security and tracking capabilities for a wide variety of goods. Warehouses, libraries, and manufacturing plants are all potential venues with regard to the tracking aspect of RF-ID systems. However, with respect to the security aspect of RF-ID systems, the tracking and security of Secret or Top Secret government documents, is one of the areas which focuses on allowing or prohibiting access to a physical object, i.e. document. An even further extension from tracking and securing an object, is to allow only "original" copyrighted objects, i.e. Digital Video Disk (DVD) and Digital Videocassette (DV) to be played on players, i.e. DVD players.
The current methodologies available for exercising copyright/anti-tape protections can be characterized as mostly deterrents constituting little more than "Warning Labels". This program material is mostly analog, "branded" multimedia content such as prerecorded VHS tapes of major studio motion pictures, CDs, cassettes, broadcast movies via cable/satellite channels, etc. Recording artists, major studios and the like have tolerated such inadequate safeguards because until recently the copied product resultant was degraded in quality sufficiently such that it could not duplicate the quality of the original Master material itself. In fact, there is a government act, the HRA ACT of 1992 which allows one analog copy of a copyrighted work to be made and played at a time (i.e., if you leave your cassette in the car and it melts, the ACT allows you to make another copy for your use, but it does not permit the making of several copies for sale).
The explosion of removable digital media in the marketplace today has increased the convenience of storing and using such devices for a wide variety of publication purposes. In particular optical disk media represents a relatively low cost method of publishing mass quantities of digital data and information. The nature of this "published" or compiled information can vary significantly, from movie entertainment to games, to interactive training, to X-rays or other image files. The copying of optical disk media is the most difficult form of media copyright violation to protect against since making optical copies of an original disk also copies the protection schemes onto subsequent counterfeit media. In addition, if the protection scheme is digital, hackers may be able to get around the security and circumvent the protection. Unlike analog copies, due to the intrinsic nature of "perfect" digital copies, the duplicates cannot be differentiated from the originals. Additionally, the redistribution and or reformatting of these copies in an unauthorized manner represents a further threat of revenue loss and misrepresentation of the legal rights of the owners'authentic property.
In one solution to the optical disk counterfeit problem, proposed in co-pending application Ser. No. 60/016,745, filed on May, 2, 1996 and assigned to Texas Instruments Inc, TIRIScypher is introduced wherein a TIRIS transponder is embedded into the media and upon insertion of the media into a media player, the media player interrogates the transponder which responds with an address of a data-word, located on the media itself, and a code word. The media player then locates the data-word at that particular address on the media and if there is a match between the received codeword and read data-word, then the media player will play the media. TIRIScypher has the ability to deter production of counterfeit disks because the TIRIS transponder cannot be optically copied and the encryption code data is not easily hacked especially due to zero knowledge techniques that can be employed using the RF link between transponder and transceiver. This code data, if deployed using a full integrated architecture, can be prevented from appearing on the host machine's data bus altogether, thereby isolating it from external access, hacking and/or corruption. The problems associated with this solution are that the largest portion of the financial burden lies with the players or periphery devices which perform some function on the copyrighted media and the greatest benefit would be conferred upon the copyright holders, i.e. the Motion Picture Association of America. For example, if the media were Digital Video Disks, the only cost increase to the copyright holders would be the addition of a transponder to the media itself, maybe $1. On the other hand, the periphery device manufacturer must add an interrogator to it's DVD player and possibly additional circuitry which allows for the read of a particular address on the disk at a potential incremental cost of hundreds of dollars to the standard DVD player. Therein lies the issue.
In matters where such publication methods are employed on copyrighted or sensitive source data, some improved method of guaranteeing the control and distribution of such data needs to be employed that is independent of the actual data contained on the data tracks of the media. Further, a method of insuring use of the copyrighted works should both be robust and highly resistant to either software or hardware hacking. A breach would render the protection system useless and expose the rightful owners to copyright infringement or the like. Therefore, a totally effective system should provide dimensions of counterfeit protection, and copy control capability.